Recent Highlights

Recent intellectual property litigation victories include, among others:

• Obtaining dismissal on summary judgment of a patent infringement claim brought by Oreck against Dyson in the Eastern District of Louisiana in 2006. After eliminating the patent claim, Dyson and Oreck settled the remaining false advertising claims.
  
• Successfully defending Dyson in a patent infringement action in which the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed a district court’s decision granting Dyson’s motion for summary judgment, holding that Dyson did not infringe a vacuum cleaner patent for which an inventor sought substantial damages.
  
• Achieving a favorable settlement on behalf of Dyson following a 5-day patent infringement trial against Hoover in the District of Delaware in May 2007.
  
• Prevailing on behalf of Eisai in a patent infringement action to protect Eisai’s patent on a lucrative anti-ulcer drug against a generic manufacturer. The Southern District of New York granted one motion for summary judgment in favor of Eisai, and another in part. In 2007, following a bench trial, the court entered judgment for Eisai on validity and infringement.
  
• Achieving a significant victory for Novo Nordisk in a June 2006 decision denying a preliminary injunction made by Novo’s competitor Sanofi-Aventis. The court rejected every claim in Sanofi-Aventis’s motion alleging Novo made false statements under the Lanham Act.
  
• Achieving successful pre-trial results for Philips in connection with the assertion of patents related to recordable compact discs. The district court found Philips’ patents to be infringed, dismissed defendants’ affirmative defenses and counterclaims, including an antitrust counterclaim seeking damages of approximately $1 billion. On the morning of trial scheduled to determine damages to be paid to Philips, defendants agreed to pay substantial royalties to Philips.
  
• Obtaining repeated victories on behalf of clients Philips Electronics North America and U.S. Philips in patent infringement lawsuits involving a universal remote control patent. Significant wins include a jury trial awarding Philips damages of $1 for each of the nearly 5.8 million remote controls sold, and a later decision upholding the award and granting Philips attorneys’ fees and expenses. In April 2006, S&C prevailed in an appeal in the Federal Circuit, affirming an award to Philips in all respects.
  
• Acting as “instructing” counsel in a successful trial in German district court in December 2006 on behalf of Sony, Philips, Columbia University, Mitsubishi, Matsushita and others. The Court found that the defendant, a manufacturer of DVDs, had infringed the patents-in-suit, and dismissed defendant’s antitrust claims.
  
• Successfully representing multiple patent owners in various patent infringement actions brought in Germany involving MPEG 2 video compression patents. S&C identified the infringing technology, selected the patents to be included in the litigation, selected local German counsel, negotiated with the defendants and ultimately concluded favorable settlements that resulted in all defendants entering into licenses and paying back royalties.

Recent 2007 corporate transactions involving intellectual property include, among others:

• Assisting in due diligence and the transfer of various intellectual property assets in the acquisition of Collective Licensing International and Stride Rite by Collective Brands (formerly Payless ShoeSource).
  
• Assisting in the divestiture of Eastman Kodak’s medical imaging and health-care information technology businesses to Onex Corporation, which involved the transfer of thousands of patents and numerous trademarks.
  
• Assisting Amgen in the acquisitions of Alantos Pharmaceuticals, a private biotechnology company developing drugs for the treatment of diabetes and inflammatory diseases, and Ilypsa, a private biotechnology company developing non-absorbed drugs for renal disorders.
  
• Representing Rhône Capital III in its acquisition of International Paper’s Arizona Chemical business, a leading global supplier of pine chemicals for adhesives, inks and coatings, lubricants, fuel additives, mining and oleochemicals markets holding numerous intellectual property assets including patents.